Name: Deviled Chicken
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked chicken, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons butter, melted; ½ cup cream; 2 tablespoons bread crumbs; 3 drops onion extract; 2 hard boiled eggs, whites and yolks pressed through a sieve; 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Deviled Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

2 cups cooked chicken, finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter, melted
½ cup cream
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
3 drops onion extract
2 hard boiled eggs, whites and yolks pressed through a sieve
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Mix the chicken, butter, cream, bread crumbs, onion extract, egg whites, egg yolks, parsley, salt, and pepper until well combined.
Heat the mixture on the stove until warm.

Bake and serve

Transfer the mixture to individual souffle dishes.
Cover with greased bread crumbs.
Brown in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).
Add curry powder, paprika, or other seasonings if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Forms the bulk of the filling and gives the dish its savory, meaty base.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and keeping the filling moist.
Cream: Adds moisture and a smooth, rich texture to the filling.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and help bind the filling, and brown on top when baked.
Eggs: Bind the mixture as they set with heat, giving it body and structure.

The step that matters

Brown in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C). Starting the oven hot before the dishes go in helps the buttered crumb topping brown evenly while the filling heats through. Heating the mixture on the stove first means the filling is already warm, so it needs less time in the oven to set and brown without drying out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, cream, bread, egg, parsley, pepper):

Potatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Leekfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, cream, bread, egg, parsley, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.